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Not sure what point you’re trying to make, Malcolm Storey. Your assumption is incorrect. I added the ‘laughing’ smiley to the transcript simply because Julie literally laughed when she said it (it’s audible on the voiceover).

Julie chose a non-STEM career path, doesn’t see herself as technical, and used self-deprecating humor in the interview. I didn’t take her comment about her own face to be related to her attractiveness; I assumed she meant her facial expressions.

I’ve never even thought about whether men would consider the diverse women I know in STEM to be conventionally ‘pretty’. I suppose some of them would be deemed ‘pretty’, and some wouldn’t. Other people’s opinions of their attractiveness are simply not relevant to their affinity for STEM.

Sexism definitely discourages girls from tech careers. Regardless of someone’s personal small sample size, people of any gender making assumptions about a girl or woman’s affinity for STEM, based on whether they think she’s ‘pretty’, is sexist. If participation of girls and women in STEM is something you care about, I suggest trying to mentally decouple those two uncorrelated factors.

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